Kevin is starting a saltwater aquarium with 36 fish. He wants to start with 11 times as many damselfish as clown fish. How many of each fish will will kevin buy?

11 times as many damselfish as clownfish would mean damselfish = 11 times clownfish. Use variable to represent each fish, so variable c will be used to represent clownfish and variable d with be used to represent damselfish. So from as before, d = 11c. Since there is a total of 36 fish, the equation would look to be about d + c = 36. Since we know that d = 11c, you replace the d with 11c. So it will now look like 11c + c = 36. Add like terms, which will be 11c + c to equal 12c. So the new equation is now 12c = 36. To isolate variable c, divide 12 to both sides to get c = 3. There are 3 clownfish. To find out how many damselfish, replace 3 with c in the equation for d, which is d = 11c. d = 11 (3). d = 33. There are 33 damselfish and 3 clownfish in the tank.